Wednesday, February 10, 2010

'CAUSE I'VE BEEN ACTING LIKE SOUR MILK ALL ON THE FLOOR IT'S YOUR FAULT YOU DIDN'T SHUT THE REFRIGERATOR MAYBE THAT'S THE REASON I'VE BEEN ACTING SO COLD [WOOHOO, YEEHOO]: "Don't beg. It's not cool." Hollywood Week is where American is most like other reality shows -- with a wealth of personal drama and group dynamics from which to choose, the producers almost couldn't fail to deliver great hours of television at this point in the season. And it's always satisfying, even if it's the same beats each season -- The Group That Couldn't Come Together Because Of A Demanding Leader; The Folks Who Didn't Rehearse Enough; The Soloist You Hope Isn't Dragged Down By The Group. So thank you, Mary Powers, for being the through line that paid off this week.

What was frustrating about the hour was how little singing there seemed to be -- it was about twenty-five minutes into the episode before the first group took the stage. Seriously, is there a reason why 19 Entertainment can't put all the full group performances online now so we can figure out who's great?

We've now gone from 96 to 71 (and Fienberg, as always, has the details); next Tuesday is presumably the Four Rooms episode, followed by The Long March To The Little Chair next Wednesday and, finally, the Wacky Dancing Parade which we've come to know and love. I can't say I have any favorites yet, but I'm certainly hooked again -- and that's what Idol is all about.

added: Hinky things are going on with the comments to this post. Dunno why.

11 comments:

  1. J. Bowman11:11 PM

    This morning on the CBS Early Show, both female anchors were grilling Harry Smith about did-you-know-this and what-did-you-think-of-that, because apparently they have goaded poor Harry into watching AI for the first time.
    Says one, "By the end of the season, you'll be hooked." Harry says, "yes, yes," but his eyes are saying, "by the end of the season, you'll both be on maternity leave and I won't have to talk about this."
    There's no point to this story.

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  2. tortoiseshelly11:41 PM

    I like the overall talent from this season better than the last couple of seasons - at least to this point in the game.

    I think I've almost got my top ten. Early standouts for me (between last night and tonight): Casey James, Didi Benami, Haeley Vaughn, Andrew Garcia, & Janell Wheeler. I'm with Dan on Mary Powers - liked her last night and hated her tonight. There were a few others I liked from tonight, but I didn't catch their names.

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  3. Jenn.1:18 AM

    Toss in Crystal (who did Natural Woman last night) and Lilly (who did Lullaby of Birdland), and anyone not in your list who were in the group who did Irreplaceable, and I'm pretty much with you, tortoiseshelly.

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  4. half the show was arsome guys nice

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  5. You guys know names already!  I'm still going by backstories, odd hair, glasses or tattoos.  But I agree.  Talent this year seems higher than usual.  And so far am liking the addition of Ellen quite a bit.

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  6. I'm with tortoisshelly & Jenn on the early standouts, except I still really like Mary Powers.  I'm willing to give her a bit of a pass on her overbearing attitude tonight based on the fact that a) the other members of her group seemed super-annoying and b) she's what, 28? So this is her last chance on Idol. Plus, I think she has a pretty great rock voice. She killed that Pink song on Hollywood Night 1. I also really like Katie Stevens. In addition to that great voice, she seems really poised for a 17 year old.

    Casey James remains my favorite among the guys, followed closely by Andrew Garcia. Tim Urban is pretty good, but I wonder how much his Zac Efron-ness is helping? Surely the producers know he will bring in the tween votes.  

    Adam, I second that request for them to put all of the performances online. I'd really like to hear some of the performers we've only seen in the background at this point.

    When some of the eliminated people started crying last night I felt like reminding them about Simon bringing The X-Factor to the U.S. next year. Hey, Mr. BeggingForAnotherChance? See you on X-Factor season 1.

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  7. tortoiseshelly3:56 PM

    I had an earlier response that was eaten by the comments monster, but I was going to say that I agree with Linda regarding liking the addition of Ellen, and the additional performers mentioned by Jenn. I'd also add another guy whose last name I couldn't remember last night, Jermaine Purifory, who sang "Closer" with Casey and Janell.

    Also, Erin, the X-Factor comment had me laughing.

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  8. isaac_spaceman4:55 PM

    For what it's worth, by the way, Janell Wheeler is a friend -- and may or may not be/have been the girlfriend -- of ubervirgin football Jesus Tim Tebow.  Picture here

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  9. isaac_spaceman5:01 PM

    I imagine the issue with putting things online is clearance and royalties.  If the publisher is saying that Fox would have to pay a fraction of a cent per online viewing (like YouTube), I can imagine Fox just saying it's not worth it.  Maybe Fox pays a higher rate to publishers for the stuff that makes the broadcast so that it can do whatever it wants in secondary formats, but just doing the leg work to get the clearances for unaired footage -- before even factoring in the payments and infrastructure needed to count clicks, if necessary -- would be prohibitive. 

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  10. Why not just only allow them to perform songs off a precleared list?

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  11. Trae Cervantes5:57 PM

    All the American Idol years prior brought about better talent than this years American Idol finalists and contestants in general.

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